Sunday, September 28, 2014

This week we had a great one! We worked hard, and saw some progression in Jeong Hoon, our former golden turned new investigator. He originally didn't want to read the BoM, but read a little, and said he found himself wanting to read more! The Spirit works on these people!! We'll meet him tonight and do farm work on his farm tomorrow. ^^ Also a great restoration lesson with Hye Jeong, our lady-investigator. She still has lots of questions, but we helped solved a lot of them. We'll teach her the Plan of Salvation tomorrow. ^^

At the end of this week, we went to help Handsome Lee (Hyo Chang), our English-teaching investigator, with his English academy students. We had a "camping activity with about 40 crazy elementary kids! He told us to not speak Korean to them, which was really hard, because they talk to you like a dummy if they think you can't understand. But it was great! We found a lady and her son who want to learn our Family English Program/ Gospel study from that. We also picked up 2 new investigators this week. That was all before Saturday. Then, Sunday, we lost a lot of things.

Sunday, I realized I lost my Book of Mormon at the camping activity the day before. I got that back when Lee came to church and brought it with him. Then, We lost our baptismal date with Jong sun, because despite a confirmation call, he didn't out to go to church with us, even though we walked 2 miles out to meet him. His date was the 5th, but now he can't get the necessary 3 -in a row sacrament attendance. He also doesn't have any recollection of the doctrines of the first few lessons we taught him, so he wasn't even ready anyway. We were going to give him a priesthood blessing at church for his memory, but he didn't come! I am starting to wonder if his handicap is big enough that he isn't our responsibility but God's after the resurrection... ㅜㅜ

We also lost a Zone Leader that night. Elder Brewer had to go home suddenly because of health issues, and that shocked us out of our minds. Now, our new zone leader and his companion are both new to Suwon zone, so I dunno if they know our needs... But we'll trust the Lord and our President! Still, really depressing. Sunday was a hard day, but there were miracles. A woman in our branch who is your age, mom, and has been struggling with faith and testimony for a long time and still hasn't been sealed to her family due to the husbands indifference towards the church, went to the temple and realized that the Gospel should be the center of our lives, not an appendage. If we do it that way, we have enough strength and time for the truly important things. We have been meeting with her family for the past few weeks for family home evening, and the words we shared from the scriptures and Liahona magazine really are helping. God is using us to strengthen this poor family!! I am so glad I have a fundamental testimony of living the Gospel as a family, because it provides my testimony power and force when I share it and think about you guys. Keep it going! You'll need this testimony later, I promise.

Well, that's my week! Looking forward to this one! I need a temple P-day... ^^ Time to spiritually recharge.

I love you all, and pray that the Lord keeps you and leads you every day. Everybody keep being the best family a missionary could have! ^^ Take care.

Monday, September 8, 2014

Things are awesome in Anseong with Greenie miracles! We have a baptismal date.

Elder Jensen extended 3 baptismal commitments this week! What a stud!!! Who's his trainer? Oh, yeah... haha! ^^ He is still super dedicated and very patient with me. I don;t really speak English anymore, because President is worried about too many less-than-capable Korean speakers, so we are all picking up the SYL . My companion loves it! He's gonna such a great Korean speaker and missionary! ^^

We've also been blessed to pick up a lady from the sister missionaries who closed this transfer. She is super golden!! She read the Restoration pamphlet we gave her and prayed about our message (before we could even teach! WE had just introduced our lesson and did How to Begin Teaching in Preach My Gospel) and then said God started helping her remember things like scriptures and hymns from her religious childhood that she has long since forgotten. She said that was the answer, and she thinks our message is true. We gave her a Book of Mormon (we try to introduce it and set times to study it together before just giving it out to anyone) because that's where our message is! She seemed super excited to read it. Now the trouble is, we need one of our ward members to come teach her with us cuz she's a lady. We have met the past 2 times in public places, but I still feel like she needs a fellowshipper and to come to the church for a lesson. Please pray for her and for Chan-Shik Park's family (our branch mission leader) to have time to meet her and help her progress! ^^ Thanks.

Today is Korean Thanksgiving, Chu-Seok! That means that everyone is gone from the streets and is visiting their families so we cant' meet them, even members.

We are gonna meet a less active family every week in family Home Evening and teach them the lessons. But nothing will change until they realize that while they have been struggling, they aren't completely trusting God yet by putting him first. I was stressed after the lesson cuz I can't speak as fluently or clearly as I want, but I realized that I had shared scriptures and bore testimony, and directed them to the words of the prophets to learn for themselves, and that's all I am commissioned to do. I will continue to help this family, and your prayers would be appreciated. I realize how blessed we are in our family, to know the gospel and have so many faithful members around us to help if we are in need. Hard to do that in a branch with only 20 people on a good Sunday, all living far away from each other! I will do my part in this Branch of Zion to give these poor travelers rest and hope by leading them to drink from Christ's fountain!

Anyway, busy times here in the middle of nowhere! I love this town!^^

I am still great and LOVING the work! Nothin better anywhere! ^^

The food is WONDERFUL!!! In Anseong, we get lots of fresh produce cuz this is farmland. This is a 풍년, a year of plenty, for fruit! So our fridge is packed with delicious apples, grapes, and bananas. ^^ The food we eat everyday is Korean food I have learned to cook, mostly rices and spicy soups. YUM!!

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

As you can tell from the subject bar, I have a "Son"! My New Missionary's name is Elder Kyle Jensen from Richmond, Utah. He graduated from Skyline High and will turn 19 next week. He is a super dedicated and ready-to-work-hard missionary, which means he fits well with me. We are diving into Korean, teaching, inviting, and otherwise mission life headfirst, and he's taken it magnificently. I am so extremely excited to help this Messenger of Joy learn the ropes and improve himself through this marvelous work of Salvation.

In other news, the work in Anseong, Korea is hastening for us. We have been blessed with a former investigator that wants to learn again, and we have been teaching him completely from the Book of Mormon. He has had problems with it in the past, but now it is starting to make sense that God would bless the world with more of his word. His name is Jung-Hoon, for those who want to put him in their prayers. ^^ Also, our wheelchair-riding investigator is still struggling with memory problems, so please put "Jong-Sun" in your prayers, too.

Our "Anseong Family" district came to an end this last week with the new transfer. Our sister missionaries, who worked really hard and suffered a lot for the Savior's name here in Anseong, were assigned to different areas and there arent enough sister missionaries in our mission to keep their area open. Also, my last companion, Elder Robinson, went to my last area, Shingal, and Elder Song, our Korean, went to Seoul. Since we dont feel like a "family" without the special spirit that sisters bring, we are now reduced to the Anseong Brotherhood, name courtesty of Elder Ely of the Elders #2. But, despite the tough goodbyes and empty feeling, we are ready to pour our heart might mind and strength into our Branch and strengthen it in anyway we can! All 4 of us elders are ready to work hard and sweat it out in this the last part of the Korean Summer.

I just want to share with you all how much I love this work and this opportunity I have to serve my Father here as a missionary. I have learned more in the last 13 months than I ever have before, and I still have such a long way to go! There is never a boring moment, because there is always work to be done. This work is becoming my work and my glory, as it is for our Father. Thank you for your prayers and thoughts and love. Keep on hastening yourselves in this work! Feel the FIRE!!!! ^^